Digitalise Scent

18/02/2008

Scent. One of the many things that technology hasn’t been able to actually digitalise, store, retrieve, read, write over and over again. Replaying them over and over again.

There were many companies during the dot.com era with promising (after getting pumped with lotsa money) technology and approach in digitalising scent. I have long wanted this to come true. Saw Perfume, The Story of a Murderer? Not that hardcore please. Morever, that’s killing but it does show what an obsession it can be for some to be able to store and relive smell over and over again. Scents to me are something that bring along a lot of memories and at times, more than what photos can actually offer. Weird? Not really. Studies have shown that “scent is the strongest link to memory and can stimulate natural development of deficient chemicals in the brain.

“When people smell things, they are linked immediately and unconsciously to the past,” she said. “When you take a vitamin or an essential oil, it is made up of the same molecules as the body. It uses what it needs and the rest is eliminated.”” (- Source)

We do remember things better with a certain scent than seeing it physically. Memories return instantaneously with the passing of certain scent.

The day may just come when we simply have to “Click here to try our new fragrances”, online. Gone will be the days of bundled”scent cards” that comes with ladies/men/fashion/whatever magazines all the time, the small little cards slips at shopping centers where you spray a little of whatever fragrances that may fancy you or your loved ones.

With a multi billion dollar industry of selling scent by the perfume makers, all I know, they may very well be doing exactly that already. As I am typing this, they are trying very hard to change whatever scent they have made into zeros and ones. We reproduce videos, text, photos, sounds…things we actually can physically touch and feel. We can see, hear and listen all the time. Couldn’t the computer have done something for our noses?

Technology nightmare? It may be. I’m imagining being able to reproduce any scent. Rusting of metal, smell of a new book, scent of a person’s hair after showering…anything. The combination will be infinite. Maybe till someone is able to solve the infinite theory will we be able to do this? That’s unrelated damn it.

Someday and I hope it’ll be within this lifetime will I be able to be say buried with DVD or rather Blu-Ray copies of my favourite scents till eternity and someone after me will know, what was my favourite scent or smell when I was alive.

There are 3 comments in this article:

3/04/2008aforahma say:

hey, chanced upon this site while i was trying to search for pioneer mrt photos as i’m moving to the new neighbourhood in a few month’s time.
really happy that i can finally check the progress of the new mrt station. thanks for the pics!
22/04/2008tech.dummy say:

Oh yeah! The scent is definitely a nice way of triggering your memory cell. You know what, something happened and it makes me wonder, would I be playing the same imagination in my brain everytime I smell of something “rotten”? Well, I hope not but then I don’t think it will be lost in me though. I love books, particularly those with murders and wars. After this incident, I keep imagining what it’s like (to be there). Ok sorry guys, I probably have been babbling non stop without ever telling why.
I lost my uncle a couple of days ago. He was mentally unstable, and my family haven’t been able to reach him for the past 6 months. He refused to acknowledge nor open the gate when we went visit. Well, we left him the way he want it to, as I kept telling my mum, no one can help if he refuse to help himself, rite.
2 days ago, I received some news, apparently the neighbours started to complain some rotten smell coming out from his home. They called the police and voila! They found his body. They suspected he had already passed away at least 5 days, hence all the smell. The identification came, but none of my family member able to tell much, except his cloths. His body started to decompose so badly that none of his face is visible anymore well, apart from maggots I believed. Obviously a post mortem is to be carried out etc to find the cause of death but you know what? The pathologist mentioned they can’t find a thing because the decomposition is so bad that not a single blood can be found in the body. Crap! I know he still has some flesh or body fluids left since it is not like they found the body with only bones. The professionals just refused to get their hands dirty. But since the incident already cause enough grievances to my family, we quickly cremanate his body and get it done with. However I wrote an official email to feedback to the board telling them to go to hell in a diplomatic way. That’s how the government work!
Honestly, I am sad, not because we were close (only when I was around 5?) but because he died in this way. I don’t understand why he became this way, he was once a successful man with his own business and house. It is really an unsettling feeling and I can’t imagine what it is like to leave the world this way. I am not even sure how he ended his life, whether it is a suicide case or just natural death. None of us will be able to tell. I lost someone important before, and it makes me more mature. I can’t tell everyone to cherish your close ones but don’t ignore them either. Unfortunately, human nature like to learn the tough way. Thanks guys for letting me venge out, it’s not like a nice story to tell everyone but it sure help to just blog it out. Cheers!
26/04/2008etegration say:

Thanks aforahma and tech.dummy. i think after today, i have a good idea who tech.dummy is. Thanks for reading and take care. Don’t be sadden, we have to move on. loosing someone makes us wonder a lot of things and to find someone too brings a lot of special meaning into our lives. i think you do know what i mean. i was lost for quite long till i found her.

Write a comment:

You have to log in to write a comment.